10 Last Minute Changes That Saved Wrestling Stables
8. Harlem Heat
When it comes to the best talent that WCW produced then Booker T is in the conversation for one of the most important of all time. Not just as a single star, hitting his peak just as the company was bought out, but before then whilst teaming with his brother Stevie Ray as the adored Harlem Heat.
It’s a really good thing that they didn’t go with the original gimmick then.
In the fall of 1993, the brothers debuted at a house show alongside manager Colonel Robert Parker, whose character was that of a stereotypical Southern plantation owner. If you think you can already see where this is going then yes you are correct if you feel disgusted.
Apparently, Booker and Stevie - then known as Kane and Kole - were to have been two men that the Colonel “won” in a gambling game and, perhaps worst of all, they came to the ring wearing shackles around their wrists and ankles.
The phrase “what the f*** were you thinking” comes to mind, doesn’t it?
The audience reaction was so negative, unsurprisingly, that the gimmick was never trotted out in front of cameras. Very soon afterwards the two got their far more appropriate and far more over gimmick as Harlem Heat and history tried its best to swipe this terrible mistake under the rug.